Demand-based messaging is a communication service that allows users to exchange message data, such as text, over a network or other communications media, in real time. Probably the most common medium for exchange is the Internet, but as wireless phone networks continue to expand, their popularity for text messaging is also expanding. U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,609 issued to Aravamudun et al. and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0035605, for example, illustrate the move toward an exchange medium that unifies traditional and wireless communications. Instant messaging (IM) is perhaps the most widely known and used embodiment of demand-based messaging. Today, most network and online service providers offer some form of IM service. IM sessions (colloquially referred to as “chats”) are often lengthy, with multiple participants each taking many turns “speaking” in the chat window.
IM users typically use a networked computer and IM client software to exchange messages with one another in conversational style. An IM client provides an interface for users to compose, send, receive, and read text messages. Examples of IM clients that are popular today include IBM's SameTime, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo/AOL Instant Messenger. Web-based interfaces are also gaining popularity, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,651,086 issued to Manber et al., which describes how a user can join conversations about topics that are presented as web content.
In a graphical display, an IM client usually includes at least two windows: a window for composing and sending messages, and a window for displaying messages as users take turns sending and receiving them. It is common for one user to have multiple IM chats running simultaneously, usually in separate windows. Chats may include simple information shared by two workers scheduling a meeting, or they may contain complex discussions regarding proprietary information and critical decisions that keep a project moving forward. Chats also may contain a high degree of historical data and proprietary knowledge that is useful not only to the participants, but to other people within the organization that did not participate in the chat.
Chat transcripts frequently reveal that users spend at least some portion of a chat trying to locate specific statements already made in the current chat, or perhaps in a prior chat. Alternatively, IM users may engage simultaneously in a chat and a phone conversation, and the phone conversation may turn to locating and sharing chat information. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2004/0037406, for example, discloses a method and system for distributing instant messages to conference call participants. IM users often need to refer back to information that they have sent already in one or more prior messages. Just as often, IM users need to share that information with other users (perhaps in other chats).
Current IM implementations fail to address adequately this need to locate and share chat information. Consequently, current IM users must scroll through chat windows (which may be hundreds of lines long) or use the IM client's limited search capability to find specific information. Either of these techniques for locating specific information can prove difficult, cumbersome, and time-consuming. Furthermore, both techniques lack the precision necessary to avoid misunderstandings about specific references. For example, if one user desires to share a specific portion of a chat with other users, then that user must describe the location precisely, or the other users must search for the location, or both. If the users want to confirm that they have located the correct information, then they must describe the information they found. Without that confirmation, there is no certainty that the users have accurately communicated the location of the chat. Additional problems arise when users have different size chat windows, or have joined chats at different points. Clearly, the known solutions to sharing chat information create communication ambiguities and divert conversational resources from intended topics.
Thus, there is a need to advance the state of the art of instant messaging to overcome the current shortcomings inherent in sharing chat information. In particular, IM users need an effective means for referring to and sharing specific information. The ideal IM solution will enable an IM user to mark a specific location within an instant message, share the message mark with another user, and synchronize a chat window with the message mark.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.